Rollo’s Nelson Adventure Race
Firing on all Cylinders for Rolls’s 24 Hour Race
Richard Ussher / 21.05.2013
10 days ago was the final ever edition of the Rollo’s 24 hour race - under the directorship of Chris James he says anyway. Ironically his announcement that this would be the last of the 24 hours races, which have been running for 13 years, drew in all and sundry and marked the largest field ever assembled at this event.
I was due to race with Elina in a 2 person team, going up against Nathan Fa’avae and Sophie Hart but Elina had a couple of minor niggles and so decided it was better to get those right than commit to what would have been an all out battle against Nath and Soph.
I managed to get hold of JJ Wilson, captain of the young up and coming Bivouac Colts AR team to join me. Whilst talking with Nathan 2 day’s before the race we agreed it would be a lot more fun to join forces and so much to the disappointment of several teams we joined the 4-person race, Team Seagate-Subway was born.
We had a fantastic day and portion of the night out, much of the course were areas where we regularly train so the maps were often left in the bags (which did end in one minor detour) and we all pushed each other along to record a good win in just over 14 hours.
For us it was really about getting out and supporting what has been a hugely popular local event and one that I first did in the 2nd or 3rd edition over 10 years ago. I’ve included a link to Nathan’s race report as really for me to write one would be repeating pretty much what has already been said (Thanks Nath
http://www.sportzhub.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16617&Itemid=1.)
Seeing Nath carry one of the double kayaks solo and the rest of us struggling to keep with the remaining boat, plus how well JJ equipped himself will be two of the enduring memories. Was also great to have my Dad out crewing for us and a good test for the VW Amarok getting an entire 4 person AR team, support crew, bikes, 2 double kayaks and all our associated gear in – comfortably – well would have been more comfortable for those in the back with Nath if he was a bit smaller!
For me though the highlight was for the first time in probably 7 months I felt back to 100% capacity. Racing for 14 hours regardless of the event is never easy but it was great to feel I could push and push without the body – or more specifically the legs having a complete melt down. It has been one of the most frustrating periods of my racing career and I have often wondered if I would actually ever be able to race that hard and still feel good again.
In a little over 2 weeks we will be heading up to the 3D race in Rotorua, which also double as the Australasian Championships. This has really been to focus for me as an event which I could look to over the past few months as a goal far enough down the track that it might be possible to be back to full health and the indications are the timing will be just about spot on.
After 3D I’ll be looking forward to sitting down and mapping out the racing through till next summer. I am leaning towards another tilt at Challenge Wanaka but Coast to Coast will be in the picture too.
Many of you will have also heard that the Coast to Coast was sold last week. The sport really owes Robin Judkins a huge debit for inventing the race, which has been the heart of Multisport for over 30 years. As I ended up saying earlier in the year though I feel the race needs to move forward in many areas and hopefully the new ownership will be the catalyst for the race to go to a new level.
It really is an amazing course and it would be great to see the race really thriving again
Lastly – a huge thank you to all our sponsors who have stood by us this summer in what for both Elina and I was somewhat disappointing on the results side but ultimately was a huge learning curve. As we head into the next chapter I certainly feel like we are better prepared than ever to meet the challenges of the young guys and girls who are coming through and our enjoyment and passion for the sports are as high as ever.
As a sports person it is our job to try and push the boundaries of what we can handle but that often means at some point you find out what is too much and unfortunately we had a bigger than usual fall this time. We’ve now got some good people helping us make better-informed decisions about our training to help us avoid the same mistakes and avoid the 3 yearly slump!
To check out some photos check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AdventureSportNZRichardandElinaUssher or follow me at Twitter https://twitter.com/richussher
A huge thanks to all our sponsors and supporters.
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